The steering wheel apparatus for the work vehicle as noted above comprises the tilting mechanism mounted forwardly of the driver's seat for tilting the steering wheel about the pivotal axis extending along the transverse direction of the vehicle body so that the position of the steering wheel may be shifted to suit with the figure of the seated operator for him or her to easily rotate the steering wheel.
The tilting mechanism is configured to tilt the steering wheel to a desired position while maintaining the position of the control lever having switched to the tilting allowing mode for allowing tilting movement of the steering wheel, and then fix the steering wheel to the desired position by maintaining the position of the control lever having switched to the tilting preventing mode for preventing tilting movement of the steering wheel.
According to the conventional steering wheel apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-334605, for example, a distance from the top surface of a grip portion of the steering wheel to a swing axis of the control lever along the direction of the rotational axis is long. The control lever has a manual control portion that is swingably provided under the pivotal axis of the steering wheel, and the pivotal axis of the steering wheel is positioned closer to the driver's seat than the swing axis of the control lever is.
In tilting the steering wheel, the operator maintains the position of the control lever switched to the tilting allowing mode for allowing tilting movement of the steering wheel with one hand to tilt the steering wheel to a desired position with the other hand holding the grip portion of the steering wheel.
When the seated operator shifts the steering wheel to the desired position with such a steering wheel apparatus, the manual control portion of the control lever is difficult to operate because the manual control portion is swingably provided in a position lower than the pivotal axis of the steering wheel. Moreover, the operator needs to rotate the steering wheel with one hand and thus may feel difficulty in tilting the steering wheel to the desired position.
Further, since the pivotal axis of the steering wheel is positioned closer to the driver's seat than the swing axis of the control lever is, the space between the steering wheel and the driver's seat becomes small by a distance between those axes.
Still further, since the swing axis of the control lever is moved relative to the steering wheel when the steering wheel is tilted, the control lever and the steering wheel need to be arranged to prevent a pivotal operation of the control lever from interfering with a tilting operation of the steering wheel, which may result in a complicated construction.